Yes,
Inslee is right that climate action needs to be our nation's top priority. Yes,
Kavanagh is right (in implying by his silence) that climate action is
One such means is the Green New Deal (GND), which gives the climate issue top priority, while cleverly wrapping it in a package of populist reforms that appeal widely to voters of both parties. In this sense, a strong-polling populist like Bernie Sanders, who espouses climate action via the GND, is a far more effective climate champion than someone who, like Inslee, embraces it directly . The climate movement can do wonders for its cause by incessantly demanding the GND and by supporting only populist politicians who fearlessly embrace it. It's worth adding, of course, that the climate movement will need to apply relentless pressure to keep Democrats (assuming they even gain power) from watering the GND down to the point it's meaningless.
One other means of splitting the truth between Inslee and Kavanagh (realizing the climate issue has vast potential but is not yet a big winner) is for the climate movement itself to do the job that Democrats raped them by reprehensibly shirking. Namely, constantly hammering the criminal insanity--the racist, genocidal criminal insanity--of Trump's climate policy. Personally, I still the best way to do this is for climate activists to demand that Trump be impeached for policies amounting to climate terrorism. I still think climate-based impeachment is the one exception to the rule that any impeachment launched by House Democrats after Russiagate will appear grossly partisan and will backfire politically. To me at least, it's strikingly obvious that taking the climate issue seriously enough to impeach Trump over it disgusts Democrats more than the prospect of eating dung beetles; unsurprisingly, no Democrat politician--not even climate hawk Inslee--has ever suggested Trump's genocidal climate policy as grounds for his impeachment. Just to guarantee that Trump's climate impeachment does not appear a partisan Democrat thing, climate activists should demand it--if at all--as Democrats' penance for their Russiagate-based rape of the climate movement.
But even if climate-based impeachment strikes climate activists as too risky, we should demand some related penance of Democrats--like using language that exposes Trump and Republicans' biggest vulnerability while forcing Democrats themselves to publicly take the climate emergency seriously. For Democrats' penance for Russiagate, I propose demanding that Democratic presidential candidates refer to Trump's climate policy as climate genocide or a crime against humanity, with climate activists dispensing extra forgiveness (or brownie points) for adding the word racist to each formula. Climate-change denial is, after all, the GOP's terrorist suicide vest, and Democrats have an obligation (especially after their Russiagate rape) to ensures that suicide vest takes down the GOP rather than humanity itself.
Conclusion: Time for Public Climate Movement Outrage
Never expect a climate warrior to like Inslee to fare well in a Russiagate party obviously at war with talking about climate. Nancy Pelosi's hostility to a Green New Deal, and Tom Perez's entrenched opposition to a climate-specific debate, should tell climate activists everything we need to know about Democrats' revulsion to serious climate action. A revulsion clearly reflected in--and perhaps even consciously motivating--the Democrats' Russiagate-based gang rape of the climate movement. In a sense, Russiagate was both the coma-inducing drug permitting the rape and the act of rape itself. While obliterating public awareness of Trump's unprecedented climate crimes, it actively promoted policies savagely detrimental to the climate cause itself: frightfully expensive military buildup, both nuclear and conventional (wasting desperately needed infrastructure and just-transition funding); a ramping up of fossil fuel use by the conventional military; erosion of trust with a petrostate whose cooperation is desperately needed; and positioning Trump as victim of an unjustified witch hunt, likely giving him free rein to stoke a raging climate fire for four additional, irredeemable years--with impeachment in severe disrepute and off the table.
If the US climate movement doesn't soon start showing over Russiagate public outrage appropriate to a rape, it's probably time to abandon the US climate movement.
(Article changed on August 17, 2019 at 10:26)
(Article changed on August 17, 2019 at 10:46)
(Article changed on August 17, 2019 at 11:25)
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